Arkansas police have arrested 41 year-old Jeffery Cheshier, and charged him with repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl. After Cheshier was arrested, the girl told police that he had taken her across state lines to Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, where he'd forced her to submit to an abortion.
Sidewalk counselor Angela Michael told LIfeNews that she wad contacted by police from the girl's home town, "to see if we had any information concerning this case and we informed them we had evidence confirming a crime had been committed." Michael was able to provide a photo of the suspect's car at the clinic, and indicated that she had also seen the victim there on the day in question.
Sally Burgess, Hope's director, told television station KSDK-TV that she knows nothing about the case. They quoted her as saying, "Anytime a teenager lets on to us that she's in any sort of jeopardy, we are going to do what's in her best interest and that's report it to the authorities."
I like the part where the girl has the responsibility to "let on to" them that "she's in any sort of jeopardy." The fact that a 15-year-old girl's been brought in from a state with parental involvement laws ought to have been a bit of a red flag, I'd think.
KSDK's coverage, Granite City Abortion Clinic Part Of Rape Investigation, says:
In Illinois, juveniles do not need parental consent for an abortion. When we asked the Madison County State's Attorney's Office if clinics are required to notify police when a juvenile has an abortion, we were referred to the Hope Clinic who told us such notification is not mandatory.
That's freaking amazing -- the TV station's reporters call the State's Attorney's Office for information about the law, and they get referred to the abortion facility! Doesn't the State's Attorney General's office know the law? Do they have to have Hope Clinic interpret it for them?
Hope Clinic for Women is the National Abortion Federation member clinic where Barbaralee Davis underwent her fatal abortion.
Interestingly enough, the Missouri Supreme Court is considering whether to uphold a law allowing parents to sue an abortion facility for complicity in just such occasions -- when an adult takes their child out of state to evade Missouri parental involvement laws. Hope Clinic in particular is criticized for advertising in Missouri to attract customers who are seeking to evade the law.
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